REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - As the first Muslim woman in UK parliament, Baroness Warsi or Sayeeda Hussain Warsi, the Minister without Portfolio in David Cameron's Cabinet, said the attack of September 11 changed her life as well as it changed Muslim life. The visiting minister who originally from Pakistan, was usually called British Asian, but after 9/11 she was called British Muslim, as Muslim was believed to be involved in the incident.

"I faced some challenges, the color of my skin and my religion," Warsi said on Tuesday on her General Lecture entitled 'Breaking The Boundary: The Reality of the West' in Universitas Indonesia, Jakarta.

Only two months after the incident, she decided to get away from UK. She went to a place where her family came from, Pakistan. "But I was being a coward by taking that decision," said a woman who was a solicitor.

On 2004, she chose to come back to Britain when she became a candidate for Member of Parliament (MP). The elections taught her a lot about Islam and the West, British people and religious and non-religious community.

She lost the election at that time because orthodox Muslim said Muslim women could not be a leader. One thing that she believes is women liberated when Islam was born. 

"I will always defend Islam," she said.

In Britain, she continued, Muslim women were free to wear burqa, veil, or hijab. The Ahmadiyah was also treated well in Britain, she said. She would be delighted if Britain would be the first non-muslim country which issued Islamic Economy. 

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